Iago is the most alone scoundrel of Shakespeare There has been a batch of contention about his motivations and he has been considered as an embodiment of the Satan. At the same clip. Iago is one of the most superb Shakespearian characters although Shakespeare uses his cunningness merely for devilish intents. He has can justly be called an atheist of human nature and a furtive corrupter of human piousness. a unafraid disturber of domestic peace and an disbeliever in and denier of anything religious.
This is interesting to observe that all characters in the drama. except for Roderigo ( to whom he sometimes shows his existent face ) have a high sentiment of Iago and mention to him as “honest Iago” . He uses this high oestimation of him by these major characters to gull them. The Common relationship between Iago and Othello is of trust and trust on the portion of Othello but it is conniving and oblique on the portion of Iago. Iago has same relationship with Cassio. Cassio is besides deceived by the looking virtuousness of Iago and really believes that ensign is a kindhearted adult male.
But at the same clip is a rival to Iago in the royal tribunal. Another aspects of his relationship with Othello and Cassio is that he ( Iago ) lives the portion of a blurt vocal field chap who is ever prepared to state what he truly thinks without caring for the consequence it may hold on others. Othello is shown as a trusting and thorough in his trust for Iago. Although when Iago starts working on him. he suspects him and asks for grounds. yet from the beginning of the drama. he seems to hold put full assurance in the honestness of Iago. who had non been his comrades in weaponries.
This assurance is misplaced but it is no mark of stupidity in Othello. He does non hold a typical fright of him. We find this even before Iago has set a trap for him. Othello fears the monster “too horrid to be shown” that he discerns about Iago’s ideas. This manifests a unusual relationship based on self-contradictory feelings. It is of assurance. trust and fright. But latter events show that Othello’s trust in Iago overpowers the natural fright. This happens due to Othello’s non-meditative nature.
He does non contemplate over issues and does non weigh their motivation and effects. And this is the thing that helps Iago to acquire control over Othello. A. C. Bradley justly says in this respect ; The beginnings of danger in this character are revealed but excessively clearly by the narrative. In the first topographic point. Othello’s head. for all its poesy. is really simple. He is non observant. His nature tends outward. He is rather free from self-contemplation. and is non given to contemplation. Emotion excites his imaginativeness. but it confuses and dulls his mind.
On this side he is the really opposite of Hamlet. with whom. nevertheless. he portions a great openness and trustingness of nature. In add-on. he has small experience of the corrupt merchandises of civilized life. and is nescient of European adult females. ( p. 217 ) Relationship between Iago and Cassio exists and develops on the same lines as that of Othello’s. Cassio has a high sentiment of Iago and considers him an odd individual in Florence but Iago’s sentiment of him is prejudiced and biased. Iago dismisses Cassio as a mere theoretician and non a practical warrior.
In their common relationship Cassio’s genuine honestness is contrasted with Iago’s looking honestness. We are ne’er certain that we understand why Iago commits his evil workss. Coleridge calls his evilness as “motiveless malignity” ( 315 ) there is no uncertainty that he is throughout an creative person in villainousness. There is no enigma in the psychological science of Iago and the key to Iago’s motivations may lie in the composing of his character. One of the noticeable traits in his character is acute sense of high quality and disdain for others.
There besides the irritation of holding ever to play a portion. the enjoyment of the action and the absence of fright. Iago’s sense of high quality has been thwarted and it needs satisfaction. The fullest satisfaction. it could happen would. no uncertainty. be in the consciousness to take retaliation from those who are so successful and popular. In add-on to his strong desire to fulfill his sense of power. there are besides certain other forces which drive him on. One of these is a pleasance in action really hard and parlous. This action and pleasance lends him prowess in the art of being vindictive against other.
All these features if nature and his temperament play a portion in doing him a great scoundrel of Shakespeare. These motivations appear and disappear in the most extraordinary mode. Resentment as Cassio’s assignment is expressed in the first conversation with Roderigo. and from that minute is ne’er one time mentioned once more in the whole drama. Hatred of Othello is expressed in the first act merely. Desire to acquire Cassio’s topographic point barely appears after the first monologue. and when it is gratified Iago does non mention to it by a individual word.
The suspicion’s of Cassio’s machinations with Emilia emerges all of a sudden as an reconsideration. Iago’s love of Desdemona is alluded to in the 2nd monologue ; there is non the faintest hint of it in word or title either before or after. The reference of green-eyed monster of Othello is followed by declarations that Othello is infatuated about Desdemona and is of a changeless nature. and during Othello’s enduring Iago ne’er shows a mark of the thought that he is now paying his challenger in his ain coin.
In the 2nd monologue he declares that he rather believes Cassio t0o be in love with Desdemona ; it is obvious that he believes no such thing. for he ne’er alludes to the thought once more. and within a few hours. he describes Cassio as an honest sap. All these motivations have unusual self-contradictory features in them but it could non hold been happenstance that Shakespeare has attributed so many motivations to Iago. All these motivations manifest the intricate nature of Iago’s characters and temperament. In add-on to a adult male of action. Iago besides seems to be something of an creative person who takes delectation in set abouting a complicated undertaking in a punctilious mode.
The action he starts and works out is intricate. We get an feeling that at some phase. the action Iago initiates remain no longer within his control and power but instead becomes his maestro. It is as he was fated to make what he does. Work Cited Bradley. A. C. Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet. Othello. King Lear. Macbeth. 2nd erectile dysfunction. London: Macmillan. 1905. Colderidge. Samuel Taylor. Lectures 1808-1819 On Literature. Ed. R. A. Foakes. Volume 2. Princeton. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. 1987. Shakespeare. William. Othello. New York: Penguin Books. 1993.
